Welcome
Exploring Gardens of the Past...
...through cutting edge methods in archaeology, design research, preservation, and public outreach.
THE sOURCEBOOK FOR gARDEN aRCHAEOLOGY
Methods, Techniques, Interpretations and Field Examples
The Society for Garden Archaeology formed in tandem with the creation of the Sourcebook for Garden Archaeology, which "addresses the increasing need among archaeologists, who discover a garden during their own excavation project, for advice and updates on current issues in garden archaeology. It also aims at stimulating broader interest in garden archaeology. Archaeologists with no specific training in garden archaeology will read about specific problems of soil archaeology with a handful of well-developed techniques, critical discussions and a number of extremely different uses. Methods are described in sufficient detail for any archaeologist to engage into field work, adapt them to their own context and develop their own methodology. While the Sourcebook aims at bringing together different disciplines related to garden archaeology and providing an overview of present knowledge, it also hopes to encourage development of new directions for the future."
Activites of the initial group included seeking out projects for applying the methodologies published here, as well as project that form the examples here. Some of these projects are listed below, along with current activities.
The book is available for purchase at https://www.peterlang.com/document/1052272
Projects
The Casa della Regina Carolina Project at Pompeii (Italy)
This project, sponsored by the University of Bologna, Cornell University and Harvard University, is exploring a large garden and house at Pompeii to investigate relationships between domestic material culture, social performance, and historical change. The team combines innovative archaeological field methods with a rigorous approach to legacy data, applying new detection and recording techniques while also salvaging and synthesizing information from early excavations. Explore our project and publications at:
https://archaeology.cornell.edu/-casa-della-regina-carolina-crc-project
The Rajput/Mughal Palace Gardens of Ahhichatragarh Fort, Nagaur, Rajasthan (India)
As architectural conservation of this 18th c. palace neared completion, attention turned to the restoration of the palaces' gardens. After an interdisciplinary conference, Kathryn Gleason, James Wescoat, and David Lentz worked with a small team of Cornell University archaeology and landscape architecture graduate students to undertake test studies in each of the gardens. The results revealed how the gardens fit into the desert water harvesting system of the palace.
http://www.lajournal.in/83-4.asp
This project pays tribute to the work of Elizabeth Moynihan, who sought out and documented the gardens of Babur.
https://asia.si.edu/research/archives/online-resource-gateways/moynihan/
The Horti Stabiani Project, Stabiae (Italy)
The Horti Stabiani Project, Stabiae (Italy)
One of the first collaborations of the founders of the Society for Garden Archaeology, this project, under the auspices of the Pompeii Archaeological Park and the Restoring Ancient Stabiae Foundation, brought together a team from Cornell Institute for Archaeology and Material Studies and the CRNS/Paris to carefully document all the known archaeological features of the gardens at the Villa San Marco, the Villa Arianna, and the Panoramic Domus. The team worked with palynologist Dafna Langgut of the Ancient Environments Laboratory, Tel Aviv University, on an innovative application of pollen evidence.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305440325000585
Gardens of the Roman Empire Project
Petra Garden and Pool Project, Petra (Jordan)
The Horti Stabiani Project, Stabiae (Italy)
This ambitious open-access project has been a central effort of the Society founders. It was started by garden archaeology pioneer, Wilhelmina Jashemski, and continues to this day through the development of a web publication, in gazeteer form, of all known Roman gardens from the Empire at its greatest extent. With the publication of the original corpus of material, it is now moving into the future with new sites and the publication of new corpora, from ancient inscriptions, texts, and visual representations to evidence from environmental archaeology.
Petra Garden and Pool Project, Petra (Jordan)
Petra Garden and Pool Project, Petra (Jordan)
Petra Garden and Pool Project, Petra (Jordan)
The Petra Garden and Pool Project, under the direction of Leigh Ann Bedal (Penn State/Behrend Campus) served as the pilot project for the Sourcebook of Garden Archaeology and excavations and study continues today. Once known as the "Lower Market" Bedal found a large pool with a central pavilion overlooking a large formal garden. Dating to the Nabataean period, the first centuries BCE and CE, it was probably one terrace of a large palatial complex that dominated the City Center.
https://roman-gardens.github.io/place/arabia_petraea/petra/arabia-petragarden/
Talks and Presentations
Petra Garden and Pool Project, Petra (Jordan)
Petra Garden and Pool Project, Petra (Jordan)
Since our formation, Society members have offered specialist talks and workshops on garden archaeology approaches and methods to scholarly, professional, and public organizations internationally.
- American Society of Landscape Architects local and national meetings
- Archaeological Institute of America, local and national
- Local and National lectures
- AOROC/CNRS Paris Roundtables and talks
- Garden Club of America
- Lund University workshop
- Mehrenghar Trust, India conference and workshop
- NY State Archaeological Association
- Oxford University
- Pompeii Archaeological Park conferences
- Roman Archaeology Conference panel
- Theoretical Roman Archaeology Conference conference
Who We Are
Our Story
What could be left of a garden after hundreds, even thousands of years? The Society for Garden Archaeology was founded at Dumbarton Oaks (Harvard University) in 2003 to be an independent organization with the aim of providing a clearinghouse for information about techniques and methods of garden archaeology. In 2008, the society was formalized as a a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.
https://www.doaks.org/research/garden-landscape/resources/doaks-garden-archaeology
Our Team
President: Kathryn Gleason
Vice Presidents: Amina Aicha Malek and Elizabeth Macaulay
Secretary: Kaja Tally Schumacher
Treasurer: Michele Palmer